ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. li 
and indeed necessary, so often interpose to prevent an examination 
into the continued changes and modifications of geological condi- 
tions, the more abrupt local alterations of which have been marked 
by results to which we may frequently give a far more general import- 
ance than they really deserve. 
Mr. Lyell, in his paper on the relative age and position of the 
so-called Nummulitic limestone of Alabama, refers to a former 
communication to this Society, in which he stated that the lime- 
stone containing the Orditolites Mantelli, the supposed Nummulite 
previously mentioned, and occurring between the rivers Alabama 
and Tombecbee in the state of Alabama, was a member of the 
Eocene tertiary group, this limestone being higher in the series 
than that containing the gigantic remains of the Zeuglodon (Owen), 
a deposit above beds containing a great number of well-preserved 
eocene shells, such as Cardita planicosta and others. Subsequent 
explorings in Alabama have confirmed him in these views. After 
quoting the opinions of Professor E. Forbes, Mr. Lonsdale and M. 
d’Orbigny, previously noticed, that the so-called Nummulites are 
Orbitolites or Orbitoides, he describes sections, proving the correct- 
ness of the view he has taken, and while noticing the limestone of 
Bettis’ Hill, where it is 70 feet thick, for the most part made up of 
Orbitoides of various sizes, with occasionally a lunulite and other 
small corals, and Pecten Poulsoni, he refers its origin, like that of 
our white chalk, the softer varieties of which it resembles, to the 
decomposition of corals. 
As it would appear that Orbitoides have been mistaken for Nummu- 
lites, though, as M. d’Orbigny observes, they differ from them by the 
most marked characters, this communication is not only valuable as 
regards American geology, but also points to the use of more caution 
on the part of those who may not be sufficiently skilled in paleeon- 
tology when they mention nummulitic rocks, a class of deposits pos- 
sessing considerable interest both as regards questions relative to the 
age of such accumulations, and to the vertical and horizontal range 
of the nummulites themselves. 
Mr. Dawson has presented us with a memoir on certain red sand- 
stones and conglomerates resting unconformably upon the paleeozoic 
carboniferous rocks of Nova Scotia, for which he retains provisionally 
the name of new red sandstone, this term being at least locally ap- 
propriate. In this communication he describes this deposit as it 
occurs skirting the shores of Cobequid Bay. It appears that calca- 
reous matter is occasionally mingled with the red beds, as near Truro. 
In the vicinity of Shubenacadie this matter shows a tendency to 
arrangement in large concretionary balls. Trap rocks seem also 
associated with this red accumulation. 
The detailed descriptions of Mr. Dawson afford proof that the 
palzeozoic rocks of Nova Scotia, from beds referred to Silurian rocks 
to those containing coal and the remains of plants similar to those 
discovered in the palzeozoic coal-measures of Europe, were formed 
and subjected to pressure, by which they were thrown out of their ori- 
ginal positions, prior to the deposit of these red sandstones and. con- 
d 2 
